Title of Abstract

A History of Winthrop College, 1886-1900

Poster Number

25

Submitting Student(s)

Brierly Harris, Winthrop University

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

History

Faculty Mentor

Eddie Lee, Ph.D.

Abstract

In a study of the founding years of Winthrop College (1886-1900), the institution underwent several changes, including relocation by approximately 70 miles, name changes, and construction of significant buildings. The college itself transformed from a one-room schoolhouse in Columbia (the Little Chapel) with Winthrop’s first instructor, Mary Hall Leonard, and twenty-two students, to a multi-building campus in Rock Hill with enrollment over 500 and a four-year curriculum. The formation of Winthrop Training School and the subsequent rebranding as the South Carolina Industrial & Winthrop Normal College are seminal events in South Carolina educational history: the establishment of a premier teaching college for white women in the Industrial South to educate the new Southern women of the twentieth century. My primary research questions were: 1) why was Winthrop established in South Carolina, and 2) how did Winthrop fit into women’s education in the postwar South? My research is restricted to the first fourteen years of Winthrop’s history as an institution of higher education. I use primary sources from the Pettus Archives as well as reliable secondary sources to support my thesis. My contribution to Winthrop as a graduating history major is a visual-narrative interpretation of Winthrop College in the nineteenth century.

Start Date

24-4-2015 1:20 PM

End Date

24-4-2015 2:50 PM

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Apr 24th, 1:20 PM Apr 24th, 2:50 PM

A History of Winthrop College, 1886-1900

Richardson Ballroom

In a study of the founding years of Winthrop College (1886-1900), the institution underwent several changes, including relocation by approximately 70 miles, name changes, and construction of significant buildings. The college itself transformed from a one-room schoolhouse in Columbia (the Little Chapel) with Winthrop’s first instructor, Mary Hall Leonard, and twenty-two students, to a multi-building campus in Rock Hill with enrollment over 500 and a four-year curriculum. The formation of Winthrop Training School and the subsequent rebranding as the South Carolina Industrial & Winthrop Normal College are seminal events in South Carolina educational history: the establishment of a premier teaching college for white women in the Industrial South to educate the new Southern women of the twentieth century. My primary research questions were: 1) why was Winthrop established in South Carolina, and 2) how did Winthrop fit into women’s education in the postwar South? My research is restricted to the first fourteen years of Winthrop’s history as an institution of higher education. I use primary sources from the Pettus Archives as well as reliable secondary sources to support my thesis. My contribution to Winthrop as a graduating history major is a visual-narrative interpretation of Winthrop College in the nineteenth century.